Motherwell V Hibs 21/03/2026

[grizzlyg]

26 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

JBA sums up the current state of Scottish VAR perfectly in this article from the Sun

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/16067918/askou-fumes-var-lines-drawn-by-five-year-old/

Tight but correct call. Was exact same as one Killie had chopped off against us.

Jens should be more concerned about that effort being only 1 of 2 shots on target in 94 mins

[texanwellfan]

5 hours ago, Spiderpig said:

Hibs were well organised yesterday, they stopped us playing through midfield, two lines in front of us all the time. It forced us to try to go round them down the sides to get in behind and thats not our game.

And i though  VAR  had done away with the big toe or half a boot being offside, that decision was a joke.

 

I’m not aware of any changes having been made to VAR and offside, so the way things are it was the correct call but I’m all for scrapping the lines and unless playback shows it to be blatantly obvious, on side or off side,  the on field call should stand.  

[texanwellfan]

Yesterday’s result a wee bit more disappointing now after seeing that Celtic got beat today. 
Go to keep the faith though. We know there will be bumps but I trust JBA to keep us going in the right direction. I think we Missed Longelo more than some people thought we might have. Fancy us to beat Falkirk and then our game at Hearts should be a good one. 

[numpty]

18 minutes ago, texanwellfan said:

I’m not aware of any changes having been made to VAR and offside, so the way things are it was the correct call but I’m all for scrapping the lines and unless playback shows it to be blatantly obvious, on side or off side,  the on field call should stand.  

Trouble is, "blatantly obvious" is just as much a judgement call as any other way you can decide it with a human involved. Until the ball and everyone's extremities have millimetre-perfect position sensors in them and offside calls are made my some magically-infallible computer, there will always be controversial decisions.

[texanwellfan]

18 minutes ago, numpty said:

Trouble is, "blatantly obvious" is just as much a judgement call as any other way you can decide it with a human involved. Until the ball and everyone's extremities have millimetre-perfect position sensors in them and offside calls are made my some magically-infallible computer, there will always be controversial decisions.

True, wherever you place the decision point, that’s where the argument will centre around. 

[MJC]

2 hours ago, texanwellfan said:

Fancy us to beat Falkirk and then our game at Hearts should be a good one. 

We will draw with Falkirk and lose to Hearts.

We have peaked.

[grizzlyg]

19 minutes ago, MJC said:

We will draw with Falkirk and lose to Hearts.

We have peaked.

Fact you have tipped us to get at least 1pt concerns me 🤣🤣

[Kmcalpin]

6 hours ago, Happy Dosser said:

I also noticed yesterday that Nicky Cadden was always in the referee's ear (and other Hibs players  surrounded the ref at times to with their helpful opinions). I thought only the captain could approach the referee or is that another law that has quietly been dropped? Wasn't it also Cadden who raised two hands  to push over SOD?  Nothing was done about that  either.

Comonplace now in games and we saw it most recently when Dundee United players were harassing the ref. 

As for Nicky Cadden, he was very lucky to stay on the pitch, but in reality wasn't even yellow carded. He put in a late tackle on SOD (worse than Sparrow's yellow card tackle) and was warned by the ref. Then as you say, he went head to head with SOD, lifted his hands and pushed him aggressively in the chest (not merely pushing him away).  Still no yellow card.  After that he put in another bookable late tackle and wasn't even warned.   

[Happy Dosser]

3 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Comonplace now in games and we saw it most recently when Dundee United players were harassing the ref. 

As for Nicky Cadden, he was very lucky to stay on the pitch, but in reality wasn't even yellow carded. He put in a late tackle on SOD (worse than Sparrow's yellow card tackle) and was warned by the ref. Then as you say, he went head to head with SOD, lifted his hands and pushed him aggressively in the chest (not merely pushing him away).  Still no yellow card.  After that he put in another bookable late tackle and wasn't even warned.   

Agreed: so  this must be  down to incompetence or something worse, surely? The usual get-out is  for referees being "psychologically influenced" by a large  crowd but this could hardly have  applied at FP yesterday, given the lesser size of the Hibs support.

When I think of our two dubious sendings off against the Mutton Molesters in the cup with your litany of Cadden's offences I'm beginning to smell a rat 🧐.

It seems VAR deliberations now  are a kind of  Easter-like moveable feast, where an excuse can always be found to support a inconsistent application of the laws when it suits.

And yes, taking spontaneity out of the game is actually a disincentive for spectators to come to see what is supposed to be entertainment, despite all our club's best efforts this season.

All in all, it's somewhat disappointing 👹👹👹👹👹👹..........

[Happy Dosser]

@Kmcalpin: FTS it's time you were King of Scots again ✊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿✊. Might have a chance of the title.

[Kmcalpin]

42 minutes ago, Happy Dosser said:

@Kmcalpin: FTS it's time you were King of Scots again ✊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿✊. Might have a chance of the title.

Not me! My lowly ancestors came across the Channel with William the Conquerer! 

[Happy Dosser]

24 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Not me! My lowly ancestors came across the Channel with William the Conquerer! 

Say it ain't so!

Oh, well, I'll just have to wait until I am Supreme Leader of the Scottish Republic ✊.

[Kmcalpin]

It transpires that Elijah Just suffered a bloody nose when he was injured yesterday. Surely that constitutes a head knock? All the odder therefore that David Dickinson ignored him for quite some time. 

[stv]

6 hours ago, MJC said:

We will draw with Falkirk and lose to Hearts.

We have peaked.

No because we have no plan B. As of now we have two weeks to work on one as Hearts and Falkirk will surely see how we were nullified by Dundee and Hibs.

[SteelmaninOZ]

5 hours ago, Happy Dosser said:

Say it ain't so!

Oh, well, I'll just have to wait until I am Supreme Leader of the Scottish Republic ✊.

All hale the Supreme Leader of the Scottish Republic the Happy Dosser 🫡 

[weeyin]

2 hours ago, stv said:

No because we have no plan B. As of now we have two weeks to work on one as Hearts and Falkirk will surely see how we were nullified by Dundee and Hibs.

If you don't think we have a plan B you haven't been listening to Jens or the players.

He has been training the players to adapt to low blocks, high presses, being kicked, long high balls etc. 

It doesn't mean, however, it always works. There's a reason no team in the league wins every game.  We need every player to be on it, and sometimes they are not.

[grizzlyg]

9 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

It transpires that Elijah Just suffered a bloody nose when he was injured yesterday. Surely that constitutes a head knock? All the odder therefore that David Dickinson ignored him for quite some time. 

The other bizarre one was when the hibs player was down injured and after about 2 mins when play stopped he booked Sparrow!

If he thought it was a foul and a yellow why not stop play there and then?

Yup David Dickinson made a bargain hunt of that one 🤪🤪

[johnstone]

Teams are starting to work us out. But the fact that Hibs are coming to Fir Park for the draw says a lot.

We look a wee bit tired but we are at that stage of the season where energy levels can start to drop. 

I think with the break coming up and then Falkirk at home then we might be 9 points clear with one to go for the spilt. Which would be ideal. 

[Happy Dosser]

6 hours ago, SteelmaninOZ said:

All hale the Supreme Leader of the Scottish Republic the Happy Dosser 🫡 

Fanx! I feel pwoud, vewwy pwoud..........

[joewarkfanclub]

11 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

It transpires that Elijah Just suffered a bloody nose when he was injured yesterday. Surely that constitutes a head knock? All the odder therefore that David Dickinson ignored him for quite some time. 

Just one of many things he got wrong on Saturday. 

Dont know if it is just me, but he also comes across as quite arrogant when dealing with the players.

Probably my least favourite Scottish referee, which is saying something given the very low bar!

[gaz7]

I feel with some saying other teams have sussed us out is very premature. 

What about us sussing other teams out as Hibs who are our nearest challengers were reduced to not able to do very much against us.

With 2 weeks to prepare against a falkirk team that have been sussed out i am sure another victory will be provided.

We are disappointed because we never got to previous levels but it is very small margins and if offside goal stands a totally different outcome. 

 

[joewarkfanclub]

10 minutes ago, gaz7 said:

I feel with some saying other teams have sussed us out is very premature. 

What about us sussing other teams out as Hibs who are our nearest challengers were reduced to not able to do very much against us.

With 2 weeks to prepare against a falkirk team that have been sussed out i am sure another victory will be provided.

We are disappointed because we never got to previous levels but it is very small margins and if offside goal stands a totally different outcome. 

 

I think the way we play it also comes down to small margins a lot of the time.

We play quite a high risk possession game where a lot of our passes are in tight areas. If thats a little bit off, as it was on Saturday, the number of turnovers is higher and it becomes more difficult to build momentum and pressure.

Personnel is also important. Hibs played a narrow mid block forcing us wide. That only worked well because Longelo and Koutroumbis were both out forcing us to play Sparrow on the left.

Hopefully with 2 weeks rest, Longelo back, 2 weeks more growth on the pitch and 2 weeks to work on tactical options, we will be in a better place for Falkirk.

 

[wellon]

10 hours ago, weeyin said:

If you don't think we have a plan B you haven't been listening to Jens or the players.

He has been training the players to adapt to low blocks, high presses, being kicked, long high balls etc. 

It doesn't mean, however, it always works. There's a reason no team in the league wins every game.  We need every player to be on it, and sometimes they are not.

No plan B is one of the great clichés of Scottish football, wonder where it is filed or when a manager shouts " time for plan B"...that's unless he's " lost the dressing room".

[Mad Dog]

4 minutes ago, wellon said:

No plan B is one of the great clichés of Scottish football, wonder where it is filed or when a manager shouts " time for plan B"...that's unless he's " lost the dressing room".

I think that particular file is currently in Dingwall, having travelled there via Ayrshire.

[grizzlyg]

Think problem has been our expectation levels have just increased. Still only lost 5 out of 31 league games and despite being poor on Saturday we avoided defeat. 

We were always going to hit a sticky spell.  A fortnight off gives JBA time to get players back on form

COYW